This year’sBirdfair is fast approaching, beginning on Friday 15th August, and running for three days til Sunday 17th August. The preparations are almost complete, and the weather looks set to be fine (fingers crossed)! On all three days there will be a stand dedicated to the Rutland Osprey Project! There will be information, interpretation, a video showing the story of the Manton Bay Ospreys, Osprey-related games and activities, and enthusiastic staff and volunteers to tell you all about Ospreys! Find us in OD2, between marquee 2 and marquee 6.

Of course, you can also come to the Lyndon Visitor Centre to see the Ospreys in Manton Bay! For this weekend only, the Centre will have slightly different opening times – we will open at 10am and close at 6pm. There will be volunteers on hand in the hides with telescopes for you to use to see the Ospreys up-close, and there is also the live camera on the big screen in the Visitor Centre.

This year, we are also doing something a little bit different. In conjuncton with kits4causes(formerly Afrikit), we are after football kits to send to school children in The Gambia and Senegal, where our Ospreys over-winter. If you have any unwanted football kit you are willing to donate for this cause, that would be fantastic! Please bring it with you to the Birdfair and drop it off at the Wildlife Trust stand. For more information on this, please see the blog Tim wrote last week – Get your shirt off at the Birdfair!